MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name

RIDO EBOOK APPLICATION PLATFORM

One-line solution summary.

Rido is a digital platform which aims at providing African authors and readers with the ability to buy, sell, read and listen to books.

Elevator pitch

What is your solution?

The Rido Ebook application platform acts as a platform bringing together authors, publishers and readers in Africa.

With the Rido app, authors and publishers will be able to sell their eBooks online and receive payment via the most available local means of payment.

In addition, readers will be able to buy eBooks online using the most available local means of payment.

Also as a social objective for each book sold on the Rido platform 20% of our commission will be used to buy a book for an under privileged child.

E-books are an eco-friendly alternative to paper books which cost a lot of damage to the environment (you need many trees to make paper books), Rido will provide a platform for eBooks in Africa which will act as bridge to help Africa transition to EBooks which will save trees. Africa is said to suffer the greatest effects of global warming; through the RIDO EBook App platform we can safe countless number of trees that would have been cut down to make papers books in Africa

Our unique offering is building an eBook market eco space targeted for the African market which includes implementing local African payment systems.

What specific problem are you trying to solve?

In recent years there’s been a rapid increase in access to smart phones and digital gadgets in Africa. Hence, reading on mobile phones in Sub-Saharan Africa is on the rise and increasingly publishers, authors and readers in Sub-Saharan Africa are looking for platforms where they can access quality eBook resources. Also as global warming is becoming an ever more real threat there is the need to find alternative sources to paper books which will protect trees and avoid deforestation in Africa (cutting down trees to make books). Africa is set to face the highest effects of global warming and climate change.

Looking closely at the eBook app market space one can easily find out that most if not all eBook apps such as Amazon Kindle, NOOK, Google play books, Kobo Books etc. are not tailored for the African market, hence African authors and readers don't have access to current existing Ebook platform apps. Difficulties include:

Difficulties in payments: Most Africans especially in sub-saharan Africa face difficulties making payments on most conventional EBook Apps like Amazon or Google play books. Statistics show that 66% of the Adult African population don’t have formal bank accounts.

User frustration: Africans want to be able to access books anytime without stress especially the growing educational community in sub-Saharan Africa

Low Revenues: African authors face difficulties selling books on conventional EBook app platforms and when they do they don’t get exposure on those platforms like authors from other areas around the world.

Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?

The Rido Ebook Application platform is out to provide a platform for African authors and readers to buy and sell books.

The number of Africans gaining access to smartphones everyday is on the rise and with these smartphones Africans can save the environment by reading and publishing more eBooks than paper books.

We aim at giving the over 450,000,000million Africans who have smartphones the ability to buy and sell eBooks online of which they currently find it difficult doing while in the same light promoting the use of eBooks which will save countless trees in Africa and reduce the effect of global warming which is said to hit Africa the highest

There are lots of eBook apps out there and most of them ignore the African space. They say African’s don’t like reading but how do we read when we don’t have access to basic eBook platforms. Africans are gaining access to digital gadgets in a rapid manner we’re going to utilize it to deliver out Rido app on both android and IOS and for the web.

Our growth potential is huge we are aiming to be the go to point for all African readers and authors of all aspects from education to fiction. Africa’s student population is huge and is only set to rise we’re looking to become the go to source for educational books and research material.

What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?

As a student in the University of Bamenda I found it very hard accessing studying material and research books online.

I became really frustrated when a friend of mine from India recommended an eBook for me to read so I went online and found it on Amazon but unfortunately I could not buy it because I did not have a credit card so I searched on alternative online book shops and all of them where the same.

So I decided to search to see if I could find an African online eBook platform I taught maybe I could find one and buy the book from there with our local payment system, but unfortunately I did not find any.

So I started thinking to myself why don’t we have online platform selling books in sub-Saharan Africa and utilizing local payment channels?

I realized I was not alone university students complained that they found it impossible to buy study material from existing online book stores because they did not have credit cards. Most Africans don’t have credit cards because they don’t have bank accounts a World Bank survey showed that 66% of Africans are unbanked.

To understand the problems authors faced I interviewed over 35 authors in Cameroon while spending over 2hours 30minuets on
each interview I wanted to understand the difficulties Authors in Sub-Saharan Africa faced regarding online publications and in order to come out with a well tailored solution.

Which aspects of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Improving financial and economic opportunities for all (Economic Prosperity)

Our solution's stage of development:

Concept: An idea being explored for its feasibility to build a product, service, or business model based on that idea

Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution—in other words, what have you accomplished to date?

We are currently at the concept stage because we are yet to build a fully functional prototype.

We have entered multiple competitions where we pitched our project and the response we've gotten is amazing the most recent is the 2021 African App Launch Pad Initiative organized by the Egyptian government where we were amongst the top 22teams out of over 260 teams from across Africa and we won 1000 dollars.

Must investors we contact love our concept but can't invest in idea stage companies that's why we are working endlessly to raise funds to build a fully functional minimum viable product and show Africa and the world what Rido can become.

Where our solution team is headquartered or located:

Cameroon

Team Lead:

Tamnjong Larry Tabeh